This invention relates generally to a multiple article beverage carrier and more particularly relates to a new and improved crown support carrier formed of paperboard or the like and designed to be placed over the necks of the multiple articles contained in the carrier.
In the art of designing crown support carriers there has been provided a multitude of shapes designed to be able to support a plurality of beverage bottles by the necks of the bottles while providing a minimal amount of paperboard in the carrier in order to minimize overall packaging costs. With the advent of generic-style bottles, it is desirous to be able to have some advertising space available on the paperboard carrier. With the introduction of a plastic generic-style bottle, there has been also provided in the bottle structure a circular flange formed below the threaded neck of the bottle which is now available to the package designer as a means for retaining the bottle in the carrier.
One common problem in crown support carriers is to provide a stiffened carrier that does not sag or tend to sag whenever the consumer of the product transports the carrier using the available handle holes. The problem of carrier stiffness becomes more critical as the amount of paper in the carrier is minimized as beforementioned either by using smaller areas of paper or smaller thicknesses of paperboard in the construction of the carrier.